Matt Smith, Karen Gillan Tease ‘Doctor Who’ Season 7, Web Series

“These are the biggest episodes we’ve ever shot,” Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, said of the five episodes that lead to the exit of her character from Doctor Who.

The long-running British show returns Saturday, Sept. 1, in both the U.K. and U.S. The five-episode arc that opens season seven says goodbye to the Ponds, Amy and Rory, a married couple who have been the Doctor’s traveling companions since season five.

Gillan recently was in New York along with Matt Smith, who plays the titular Doctor, and executive producer Caroline Skinner for a screening of the season premiere. Titled “Asylum of the Daleks,” the episode features the Doctor’s most iconic enemy.

“The story and the world in which it is set is gruesome and frightening,” Smith said. “But I think we achieved our intention with the Dalek’s nature much better than we have previously, which I’m really thrilled about because the Daleks are important to Who.”

“I never found the Daleks that scary,” Gillan added. “I’ve loved them because they’re so iconic, but I’ve never been properly frightened of them. In this episode they’re really, really frightening.”

Smith says the episode, written by Executive Producer Steven Moffat, shows how the Daleks have moved on since the Doctor last encountered them and reveals more about them to the audience. “They are alien evil encased in a tank,” Smith said. “That’s why they’re his greatest foe, because there’s nothing redemptive about them.”

The episode picks up where season six left off: The Doctor faked his death and is looking to live off the radar. “We touch base with a man who is trying to step back a bit and be less prominent, less destructive,” Smith said. He added that his character is alone a lot more now, which is unhealthy for him.

Leading up to the broadcast of “Asylum of the Daleks,” BBC is posting a five-episode web series called “Pond Life” on its YouTube channel.

Skinner said the web series fills in some of the gaps since we last saw Amy and Rory in season six. “We wanted something that would set up that context and really let people get a little emotional,” she said.

“You never get to see the snippets in between their adventures with the Doctor and that’s exactly what ‘Pond Life’ is all about,” said Gillan. “It’s about these two people trying to deal with the domestic life with a time traveler popping in and out, whisking them off into crazy adventures.”

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